The Most Interesting Products We Saw at CES 2018

The 2018 Consumer Electronics Show is wrapping up today, bringing an end to a week's worth of non-stop announcements about all of the new products we can expect to see over the course of the year.

For our last video, we asked MacRumors videographer Dan to spend some time on the show floor, hunting down the most interesting products he could find. Not everything we're sharing today is Apple related, but we thought MacRumors readers might want to see some of the zanier things on display at CES.

Robots were big at CES, some of which were offering an impressive level of detail and intelligence. Jibo, a $900 "social" robot that's already for sale, was on display, as was the CLOi Robot from LG. LG's CLOi is designed to control smart home products, but it had a bit of a rough start this week when it failed to perform at an LG event.

LG's CLOi

You might have seen Jibo in person already, because the company has been showing it off at mall kiosks and other locations. Jibo has a built-in camera for both facial recognition and capturing "special moments," plus he can dance, answer questions, play music, and more.

Jibo

Other robots on display were just plain odd. Robotis had a bunch of its programmable $499 Mini Humanoid Robots set in a choreographed dance to South Korean hit song "Gangnam Style." Robotis also had a pet dog robot on hand, which was able to roll over, wag its tail, and even pretend to go to the bathroom.

Robotis Mini

Some robots were more conceptual than consumer oriented. Omron, for example, was showing off its Forpheus ping pong robot, which can play a mean game of table tennis. In the future, Omron has goals beyond ping pong or Forpheus, but for now, it's an interesting proof of concept demonstrating what robots are capable of.

Omron's ping pong robot

Beyond robots, there was some impressive TV tech being demonstrated at CES. LG created an entire tunnel filled with OLED TVs to simulate walking through a forest, while Samsung showed off its 146-inch microLED modular TV, "The Wall."

The Wall scales out to as large as 146 inches, which is the average size wall a consumer might have in a house. It's modular, though, so if your wall is smaller, it can be built smaller, too. Samsung hasn't provided pricing on The Wall, but we imagine it's going to be a lot more than most people want to spend for a TV set, even one as cool as this.

The Wall from Samsung

Though not quite as visually interesting, the latest Vivo phone was being shown off on the show floor. The Vivo is notable because it's the first phone that includes an in-display fingerprint sensor, courtesy of Synaptics. Apple was rumored to be working on this kind of technology, but the company ultimately went with Face ID.

Synaptics' Clear ID in-display fingerprint sensor

Cars and other alternative transportation methods were also a highlight of CES, with companies showing off everything from the luxurious to the futuristic. There were also plenty of electric bikes and scooters, including an FAA-approved collapsible electric scooter from Immotor. It's sleek, folds down into a tiny package, and offers a 16 mile range on one charge, but it's expensive at $1,500.

Immotor Go

Our CES coverage is at an end for 2018, but we'll be seeing more of many of these products over the course of the year. If you want to catch up on our coverage, make sure to check out our CES 2018 hub, and don't miss our roundup of some of the best Apple-related accessories we saw at the show.

Top Rated Comments

I wish Apple would have put in-display Touch ID and Face ID into the iPhone X. Then they could fill in the gaps where the other one fails. Face ID is great when you have gloves on, for instance. But Touch ID is better when you're in bed or have your phone on a table. Hopefully Apple is able to get a wider-angle Face ID working in future iterations.

I wish Apple would have put in-display Touch ID and Face ID into the iPhone X. Then they could fill in the gaps where the other one fails. Face ID is great when you have gloves on, for instance. But Touch ID is better when you're in bed or have your phone on a table. Hopefully Apple is able to get a wider-angle Face ID working in future iterations.

Absolutely. It seems undeniable that having both technologies available is better than having only one (though I'm sure someone will deny it, this being macrumors...). Unfortunately, Apple has now gone so all-in on FaceID that they almost can't add TouchID back without admitting they were wrong. Too bad.

In terms of user experience, it's on the screen, not on the button. (You must also account for localised grammar in a globalised world) - Acknowledge your pedantic tendencies do not equate to being right or useful and we'll agree to be equally correct. ;)

I thought FaceID sounded like a good idea, but after a couple months living with it, I'm starting to think in-screen TouchID would be a better solution. FaceID still fails to unlock often enough to be irritating and the inability to unlock without having the iPhone pointed at me and facing upright turns out to be a pretty serious nuisance. It's especially bad in situations such as meetings where I have my iPhone laying on a table and I need to discretely glance at something - with TouchID I could just leave the iPhone on the table, but with FaceID I have to pick it up, often rotate it, and point it at me, which is often rather disruptive for the meeting. It turns out having a way to discretely access information relevant to a meeting at my fingertips was one of those iPhone things that I'd long since taken for granted but used frequently. TouchID was much better in this scenario. Unless Apple can get FaceID to work with hemispherical coverage and any orientation, it would be better to either switch to in-screen TouchID or include both.
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Last few months I was advocating fingerprint under the display. Now, I am not too sure whether it is good...

I tell you why:

* Requires Oled screen - I prefer lcd due to the longevity
* Screen protectors could be an issue - self explanatory

I see why Apple does not want to include it - including security reasons.

Having said that, I noticed that few people complained about that iPhone X has to be positioned in a certain way in order for Face ID to work. Perhaps include both biometrics?

Yes, after experience with FaceID, I agree including both would a big improvement.

What a snoozefest CES was. It seems all these conferences are getting more boring every year. Enough with the voice assistance who cares about Alexa, Siri, Cortana. I have a Echo that is collecting dust simply because I don't like talking to it. I rather type on a keyboard and use a UI to load music.

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